My Personal Testimony

shapes) another. As other people’s lives touch ours, they help to form our faith and make us who we are. As we touch others, we reflect God’s love to them.

Relationships with other believers have extraordinary power in our lives because Jesus is present in them. Jesus knew how important people are in conveying God’s grace and presence. “Where two or three come together in my name, “ he said, “there am I with them” (Matthew 18:20). Within our churches, small groups, families and friendships, we learn from one another. We find encouragement. We challenge to follow God more faithfully. Other Christians enable us to walk as we should when we might otherwise have strayed or wandered. God uses relationships to form us, and relationships form us so that God can use us.

As I read these words of wisdom, I am encouraged to view my participation in the Open

Arms Adult Health Day Care as an opportunity to help. “It is a privileged to nurture another person, to be trusted to hear another’s dreams and concerns, to pray for someone. In so doing we may discover myriad ways to use the gifts that God has given us to benefit our family in Christ as well as for our own growth and enjoyment. As we help others, we too will be helped. As we comfort and teach and encourage, we will be comforted, taught and encouraged in turn. As we experience community, we find our own lives enriched, in turn providing us with more to give to others.”

My prayer: Lord, open my eyes so I may see the opportunities to help others. Open my mind so I may understand and learn to accept others as they are. Open my heart so I may be able to reach out in love and deepen my faith as I interact with others. Amen.

Greetings in the Lord!

This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God... You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. (1 John 4:2, 4)

There was an oppressive heaviness in the air. I had an overwhelming feeling of being alone. I felt like no one cared - like I was a failure. These thoughts and feelings were incredibly real. They consumed me and to some extent, even paralyzed me. Relationships became stressed, problems became overwhelming and a general veil of darkness came over me. As I prayed and sought God, I began to feel as if He wasn't even hearing me. It became obvious that I was facing some intense spiritual warfare. I knew that the only way to combat it was through focused and intense prayer. Request a prayer mentor.

The first step is to realize the truth of where the battle comes from. Remember the words of Paul: "For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms." (Ephesians 6:12)

Acknowledge that the enemy is trying to trip you up. Audibly command the enemy to leave you alone. Recruit focused prayer support to join you in the battle against the enemy. Remember, "the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world."

As you face the enemy, God will give you the strength and hope you need for each moment. Cling to Him, release your burdens and battles to Him. He will guide your steps. Know that the promises He gave you in the light hold true through the darkness. Then, one day, you will realize that the incredible battle you were in has been won and God is the victor.

Don't give up!

Jesus didn't come as a king, but as a helpless infant (Luke 2). Although he was perfectly God and perfectly human at the same time (John 1:14), he lived his life as a humble laborer. After he began his ministry, he demonstrated humble service to others in the miracles he performed, as well as in his instruction to his disciples. When the time came for him to die, he submitted to his Father's divine will (Mark 14:36). And now, seated in power at the right hand of God, he intercedes on our behalf (Acts 5:2932). As the perfect model for godly leadership, Jesus set the perfect example of humility. Ask God to help you follow Jesus' example as you seek to demonstrate the kind of humility that will cause others to see Jesus in you.

<(((><

Today is the fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time. Our gospel today tells us a story of experience of faith the first disciples had with Jesus in their working place as fishermen. This episode where Jesus is seen to have been teaching the people while aboard a boat and commanding Peter to “put out to the deep water and lower their nets to catch fish” presents to us a picture that has lasting and meaningful significance. In the past Sundays we mentioned that Jesus proclaimed about the inauguration of the Kingdom of God through preaching, teaching, healing and miracle working. He has manifested that he taught with authority and affirmed this extraordinary power by expelling demons. Today the gospel of Luke describes how Jesus made use of the boat of Peter which He asked to be brought into the sea in order to teach the crowd who followed him and were standing on the shore while Jesus was seated on the boat teaching. This descriptive portrayal of Luke has made a lasting historical development of how Jesus commissioned his disciples to continue his mission of teaching about the nature of the kingdom and the demands of entrance into it. The lasting impact of this portrayal is the imprint that his disciples have been given the necessary power to teach with authority on matters that fundamentally affect the lives of the people in relation to their entrance into the Kingdom of God. The areas are those which concern the proper understanding of doctrine of the faith and the appropriate behavior that the disciples must conduct their lives in the world and in conformity with the demands of the gospel. These areas are what we call in Church discipline as faith and morals.

This command to teach people has become more real when Jesus told Peter “do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.”

An assurance that came from Jesus himself when the disciples were astonished at how great the number of fish they were able to catch after having obeyed Jesus to go to the deep. Peter at first expressed his frustration that they have exerted too much efforts for the whole night to no avail, but in obedience, they experienced the extraordinary grace coming from Jesus himself and overcame the human disappointment of catching nothing and experience the presence of divine intervention because of obedience.

The ability to obey, my dear brothers and sisters, is one that is founded on the virtues of simplicity and humility. In a world that has become complex the willingness to obey has become so difficult to cultivate anymore. Today there are many human issues that are both complicated and confounding for the ordinary followers of Jesus. There are some who believe and would ask others to make their decision according to the dictates of their personal conscience and no longer give serious attention to the direction of authority, even the teaching authority of the Church. Obedience to the teaching authority of the Church is one act that is considered to be unacceptable if not simply too conservative for one who would like to be considered mature in the faith.

Today’s gospel tells us once more that Jesus has left his own apostles the mission to teach with authority and the responsibility to lead the people of God into the right direction in order to attain the Kingdom of God. Let us pray, my dear brothers and sisters, that we would have the same simple faith and humble attitude that the apostles had manifested when Jesus commanded them to “to go into the deep and put down their nets” even when they would go against our own personal understanding of the issues that confront us. Let us pray that we may be able to listen to our present-day apostles and obey them so that we also may in the end be in communion with the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit in the eternal Kingdom that we all aspire to belong.